Day: April 14, 2017

Few improvising musicians can match the transatlantic prolificacy of Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Since moving to the U.S.—first to Chicago in early 2006, then to Austin, Texas, in late 2008, where he still lives—he’s stayed busier on two (and sometimes three) continents than most folks do on one. He’s equally expert on electric and double bass, whether playing tunes or freely improvising, and his imperturbable grooves are just as powerful as the thrumming energy and gnarled turbulence of his solos.

Håker Flaten will give a rare solo performance Monday evening as part of the terrific Option Series at Experimental Sound Studio. Following the concert, he’ll be interviewed by Vandermark.

Sat 4/15 7:30 PM CCRMA [660 Lomita Dr. Stanford]
The California Electronic Music Exchange Concerts (CEMEC) form a series of events designed to strengthen the connections between the various California educational institutions that maintain computer and electronic music programs. These events are run and curated by the graduate students and faculty of each participating institution. The 2017 series of California Electronic Music Exchange Concerts will be held at the campuses of UCSD, UCSB, Mills, CCRMA/Stanford, Santa Cruz, and CalArts throughout April 2017. The Stanford/CCRMA leg will be held on April 15th from 7.30PM

Sun 4/16 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation workshop in free improvisation)
The monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center continues. Bring your instrument or come to listen. No advance notice needed — just show up. Small groups will be randomly assembled from submitted names immediately before each group plays. We try to keep transition time between groups at a minimum. Audience & participants encouraged to donate some cash for space rental. Over by 10pm.

Mon 4/17 8:00 PM The ROOM Series (at Royce Gallery) [2901 Mariposa St between Harrison & Alabama SF]
The Room Series presents: SPLINTER REEDS
Splinter Reeds, the Bay Area’s first reed quintet, give a concert as part of The ROOM Series at The Royce Gallery in San Francisco, CA.
The quintet performs a world premiere work by Theresa Wong, alongside pieces by Eric Wubbels, Ken Ueno, and Tom Johnson featuring narration by Pamela Z, in an evening of contemporary reed music.

Thu 4/20 7:30 PM CCRMA [660 Lomita Dr. Stanford]
Bass2Bass – with Michelle Lou and Scott Worthington
Bass2Bass is a five string electric bass duo comprised of SoCal bassist/composers Scott Worthington and Michelle Lou. Seeing a dearth in new music written for the instrument, the duo decided to form in 2016 and commission new pieces that feature the expressive range of the electric bass in contemporary music. Their inaugural west coast tour presents three new works by composer/performers Sabrina Schroeder, Weston Olencki and Scott Worthington.

Fri 4/21 8:00 PM Z Space [450 Florida St SF]
Join us for SFCMP in concert for a weekend festival celebrating the great Lou Harrison whose 100th birthday we celebrate in 2017. 1 film, 3 concerts, composers talks, food, friends and great music at the beautiful Z Space. Attend with an All-Weekend Pass for $60, or attend individual events. Concerts are $25 each (or $15 for a group of 4 or more tickets). The Friday night film is $10. Get your tickets now.

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THE PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE (April 20, 8 p.m.). In 1994, the composer Philip Glass reworked the soundtrack to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film “La Belle et la Bête” with a stunning work of his own, which he has described as “an opera for ensemble and film.” Now, for the first time in over two decades, the Philip Glass Ensemble will revisit his sprawling tour de force, conducted by Michael Riesman; the evening will also feature a conversation with Mr. Glass and the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.
212-997-6661, thetownhall.org

MILES OKAZAKI at the Jazz Gallery (April 20, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Mr. Okazaki has been playing guitar for years alongside the alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, which is to say he’s apprenticed to a doyen of experimental improvising and rhythm. Mr. Okazaki’s potent new album, “Trickster,” features the bassist Anthony Tidd and the drummer Sean Rickman, also Coleman sidemen. The record has a rugged rhythmic twine that reflects their work in Five Elements, Mr. Coleman’s band, but it’s also looser and earthier than most of Mr. Coleman’s music. And everything is subtly recast by the piano playing of Craig Taborn, who sometimes scampers alongside Mr. Okazaki’s clean-toned guitar lines, and elsewhere issues cloudlets of harmony, gauzy but opaque.
646-494-3625, jazzgallery.nyc

EIVIND OPSVIK’S OVERSEAS at Greenwich House Music School (April 19, 8 p.m.). Mr. Opsvik, a bassist who thinks with his pen, recently released “Overseas V.” It’s the latest installment in a series of albums featuring original compositions, most of them built around sighing harmonies and lissome textures. But this newest record leans on the twitchy guitar work of Brandon Seabrook and the sharp drumming of Kenny Wollesen; it includes some of Mr. Opsvik’s funkiest and most physically assertive music yet. He marks its release with a concert featuring the personnel on the album: Tony Malaby on tenor saxophone and Jacob Sacks on piano, as well as Mr. Seabrook and Mr. Wollesen.
212-242-4770, greenwichhouse.org

WADADA LEO SMITH at the Stone (April 18-23, 8:30 p.m.). In the past five years the trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has experienced a late-career boom. His monumental “Ten Freedom Summers” suite was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, and last year he released two celebrated albums: the bristling, crepuscular “A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke,” in duo with Vijay Iyer, and “America’s National Parks,” an equally diffuse and ruminative recording, featuring a quintet. Mr. Smith, a hero of jazz’s avant-garde, has a heavyset, pulse-slowing trumpet sound. Over a week of shows at the Stone you can hear it in a range of contexts. Of particular note are Wednesday’s show with Angelica Sanchez on piano and Pheeroan akLaff on drums, and the April 21 performance featuring DarkMatterHalo, a trio of spectral sound architects.
212-473-0043, thestonenyc.com

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Mary Halvorson isn’t much one for labels. Jazz, experimental, avant-garde—whatever you want to call her music is fine with her. It’s the sort of categorical freedom that has allowed her to become one of the most innovative guitarists across any genre, leading one recent New York Times reviewer to proclaim her “an unflinching original.” She has performed with musicians such as Taylor Ho Bynum, Jason Moran, Trevor Dunn, Ingrid Laubrock, and her former teachers Joe Morris and NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton. As her own band has shifted from three to eight artists through the years, her compositional range has expanded accordingly, gaining new voices to carry out her unconventional ideas. Before she left on a European tour, we caught up with Halvorson to talk about composition, creativity, and Jimi Hendrix.

Not Art Records, in collaboration with International Contemporary Ensemble’s OpenICE program, is proud to present this live realization of Treatise in its entirety, featuring an ensemble of live-electronics performers. Composed from 1963 to 1967, Treatise is considered by many Cornelius Cardew’s greatest work and a milestone in the development of non-standard scoring. The score itself is undeniably beautiful, an architectural wonder that manages to surprise and delight throughout its 193 pages. Composed entirely of abstract visual elements, the work bears no description beyond itself. Each performer is left to his own creativity to choose and create the resulting sounds.

In keeping with Not Art Records’ mission to support electronic artists who are pushing the limits of their medium in multiple genre, we are presenting an ensemble of all live-electronics performers, including artists from the NYC improvisation scene, experimental RnB, ambient, and noise/drone.